In earlier patents, the assignee detailed how imagery can be encoded with hidden digital watermark data. Such data can be used, e.g., to tag a photograph with the name of the photographer and other identification data. This identification data is used, in some embodiments, to link to associated web destinations. For example, a photographer may watermark photographs with an identifier which, through an intermediate registry, links to the photographer's web site.
Digital watermark technology is also used to encode printed news and entertainment media, such as magazines and newspapers, with steganographic identifiers that point to associated network resources. Thus, for example, a smartphone may capture imagery from a news story photo, decode the watermark identifier, pass it to a registry, and receive a link to a web site devoted to late-breaking developments relating to that news story.
While such technology has been adopted by many commercial enterprises, adoption of digital watermarking technology by consumers, per se, has been limited. Previously, there has been no system for watermark encoding imagery, and for interacting with an associated registry database, that has been simple enough for widespread home use.
In accordance with one aspect of the present technology, digital watermark encoding—and associated registry transactions—are made transparent to consumers—performed as built-in features of common image processing operations, such as taking a picture, or printing a picture.
In an illustrative embodiment, a user particularly defines network experiences that a hardcopy image is to invoke. For example, the user may interact with buttons and other controls of a graphical user interface on the touchscreen of a printer to author specific experiences that should be triggered by a hardcopy image—such as launching a related video, playing a recorded audio clip, displaying other images in a story narrative to which the hardcopy image relates, etc. These choices can be made at the time of printing, or the printer can be used as an interface to establish or adjust such network experiences after printing. The printer then attends to interactions with network infrastructure components needed to give the hardcopy print the user-desired functionality.
In other embodiments, the content experience triggered by a printed image is authored automatically, e.g., by reference to data mined from the image's online context (e.g., Facebook photo album). In still other embodiments, hybrid approaches can be employed—with some responses defined automatically, and others defined by user action.
The foregoing and additional features and advantages of the present technology will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.